The Walking Dead Launches 5th Spinoff, Featuring Jeffrey Dean Morgan & Lauren Cohan

The unlikeliest duo in “The Walking Dead” Universe is getting a new show. AMC announced that “Isle Of the Dead” is coming in 2023, and the fifth spinoff in the TWD Universe will star Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Maggie and Negan, and the pairing already has fans buzzing.

Cohan and Morgan first starred together as Bruce Wayne’s parents Martha and Thomas Wayne in 2016’s “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.” The ill-fated couple were only seen briefly before meeting their tragic end, but their charisma was unmistakable.

When Morgan joined the cast of “The Walking Dead”, his character turned everything upside down when he forced Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his friends to watch as he murdered Maggie’s husband Glenn (Steven Yeun) and fellow survivor Abraham (Michael Cudlitz).

Fate’s cruel twist in the TWD Universe saw Maggie and Negan forced to work together to defeat a common enemy, but their hatred for each other was palpable.

Somehow, knowing that these two characters hate each other so much makes the prospect of their own series even more alluring.

The newest spinoff will be set in post-apocalyptic Manhattan. “The Walking Dead’s” story began in Georgia and over the course of eleven seasons the characters have migrated North to Alexandria, Virginia.

Thanks to the other shows in the TWD Universe, fans have had a glimpse of what happened to the rest of the world. “Fear the Walking Dead” began in Los Angeles in season 1 before making the move to Mexico and ultimately Texas. “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” started out in Nebraska but quickly moved to a road-trip across the United States toward the Civic Republic Military’s research base in upstate New York.

At the end of “World Beyond’s” two-season run, fans were treated to an end-credits scene set at a dilapidated research facility in France, where a new strain of fast-moving zombies has been discovered.

“Isle Of The Dead” is one of many new series coming to AMC in the next few years as “The Walking Dead” ends its eleven season run in late 2022. “Isle of the Dead” will have an initial six-episode first season with former TWD writer Eli Journé at the helm.

“Fear the Walking Dead” is currently in its seventh season, the highly anticipated “Tales of the Walking Dead” anthology series premieres this summer and the previously announced Carol and Daryl spinoff starring Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus is coming in 2023.

All of these spinoffs are in addition to the long-awaited trio of Rick Grimes movies that have been in development for the past few years.

Thus far all of AMC’s spinoffs in “The Walking Dead” Universe have made perfect sense, but pairing Maggie and Negan together is an interesting move. Both Maggie and Negan are known to be fierce fighters who know how to make the tough decisions needed to survive in this hostile environment. But it’s hard to imagine Maggie spending any more time than is absolutely necessary with the man who murdered her husband.

(For anyone who didn’t watch the now-infamous season 7 premiere, Negan gleefully smashed Glenn’s head in with a barbed-wire baseball bat, named Lucille after Negan’s dead wife)

Maggie had been pregnant when her husband was killed, and now Herschel is about ten years old. Whether he will be part of this new show remains to be seen.

Though it doesn’t make a lot of sense at face value, the idea that two mortal enemies are stuck together, miles away from their home, is intriguing. As “The Walking Dead” comes to an end, fans now know that for some reason Maggie and Negan end up in New York together. But why? How did they get there? What happened to everyone else? Are they still at each other’s throats?

The new series makes a lot of sense for Morgan and Cohan, who will serve as executive producers. Morgan lives in upstate New York at the Mischief Farm with wife Hilarie Burton Morgan and their two children, and with the show based in New York it will make for a quick commute that keeps him close to his family.